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Postponement of the 2020 KC Fair

Why is the Fair Postponed?

Although there will not be a Kern County Fair September 23 - October 4, 2020, we know we will be back next year. So instead of canceling our fair, we have moved to postpone our dates to 2021. Believe us when we say, no one is more heartbroken about this decision than we are. We evaluated all the components that make up our traditional county fair and came to the conclusion that we cannot bring those same traditions to our community given the current COVID-19 situation. This time apart will give us the opportunity to properly prepare for the return of the Kern County Fair that you all know and love, September 22 - October 3, 2021.

Why not wait to make this decision closer to the Fair?

Preparing for the largest event in Kern County takes a lot of planning, not just for the staff but for all those involved. Vendors need to order supplies, concessionaires need to order food, and entertainers need to make travel plans. We took as much time as we possibly could to come to our decision but unfortunately, we just couldn’t wait any longer. We made sure to look at every aspect and review all the most recent COVID-19 information before making the decision to postpone the 2020 Kern County Fair. We don’t know what September will look like, but we had to make a decision on the information that we have today.

Did you consider modifying the Fair by limiting attendance, instituting social distance guidelines and requiring face masks and temperature checks?

We took our time looking at all of the different ways to make the 2020 Kern County Fair work under the current COVID-19 limitations. That included attendance, social distancing, face masks, temperature checks and other CDC and public health guidelines. We considered countless scenarios and found that a lot of these options were not only not feasible, but under the severe restrictions, the annual Fair would not be the traditional event that our community loves.
There were a million different scenarios that we considered; social distancing at the carnival, waiting for restroom sanitizations regularly, standing in line for food or merchandise, wearing face masks in hot weather, limiting crowd sizes at concerts and grandstand events, one way aisles, making hand sanitizer with the proper alcohol content available everywhere you turn, the list goes on.